


it's not always easy

by SaraJaye



Category: Kagaku Ninja Tai Gatchaman | Science Ninja Team Gatchaman
Genre: Angst, Dry Docked Ship, Duty vs Love, F/M, Implied Relationships, Ken Struggling With Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-26
Updated: 2014-08-26
Packaged: 2018-02-14 23:00:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2206266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaraJaye/pseuds/SaraJaye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His feelings for her, whatever they may be, must always come second.</p>
            </blockquote>





	it's not always easy

**Author's Note:**

> _Author's choice, author's choice, the mission always came first._

It's not easy, always putting their mission first.

He can't say he's loved her from day one, it took a while for those feelings to develop. But he has loved her for as long as he knew what those feelings meant, and that's long enough as far as he's concerned.

He _has_ known from day one that his training and duty as a Science Ninja always comes first, though, and he's never argued. Not with the man who took him in and gave him a home when his mother died. Not with the man who recognized his great potential and became like a second father to him.

So he ignores his feelings for her as best he can. Sometimes he does so well he almost forgets he has any, but other times he can't help letting his hand brush against hers. Returning the smiles she gives him, sitting a little too close to her in the God Phoenix, shielding her with his body even against blows she could have deflected herself.

Thinking of her as a beautiful girl and not just another teammate.

Sometimes he isn't sure of his own feelings. Does he love her? Is it because she's the only girl on the team to have these feelings for? Does he mistake affection for true love out of loneliness? Nobody ever did prepare him for the deeply emotional aspects of life, after all, he was raised to fight and only to fight.

But Jun is always there. Coffee waiting for him when he gets in late or up early, a hand to help him out of any trouble he's in, her yo-yo blasting any enemies he can't reach. A shoulder when he needs to vent or cry even when he'd rather die than let anyone see him vulnerable.

 _It's friendship, that's all._ She's only doing for him what Joe or Jinpei or Ryu would do in her stead. Friendship.

He tells himself that's all it is. They are friends, all five of them, and their duty to the world must always come first.

Perhaps someday when the world is fully at peace, he'll tell her. Someday, maybe they'll live as a normal man and woman, raise a family. Live ordinary lives.

But he knows he may very well live the rest of his life as Gatchaman, always putting the world before his own desires, and he accepts this. With gritted teeth and a heavy heart, he accepts this.


End file.
